Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Wireless communication devices (WCDs), such as cellular phones and tablets have become increasingly popular in recent years. In general, a WCD may be capable of placing a call or accessing the Internet from any place inside a coverage area of a wireless communication network.
A typical wireless communication network includes a number of base stations that radiate to define coverage areas, such as cells and cell sectors, in which WCDs may operate. In turn, each base station may be coupled with a network infrastructure that provides connectivity with one or more transport networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or the Internet for instance. With this arrangement, a WCD within coverage of the wireless communication network may engage in air interface communication with a base station and may thereby communicate via the base station with various remote network entities or with other WCDs served by the base station. The combination of network entities that provides a connection between the WCD and the transport network may be considered a radio access network (RAN).
In some instances, a wireless communication network may become congested or be interfered with by an external source (e.g., a microwave oven), thereby impairing its operation. For example, as an increased number of WCDs operate within a given coverage area, interference between the WCDs may increase. To reduce such interference, the base station providing the coverage area may instruct the WCDs to decrease their transmission power, and the base station may itself decrease its transmission power. However, such decreases in transmission power may reduce the quality of service that the base station provides to the WCDs.
Further, the evolution of cities and landscapes may impair the operation of a wireless communication network. For instance, as buildings and trees rise in or around a coverage area, the radiation pattern of the coverage area may change. This may cause the signal quality to degrade, which in turn may reduce the quality of service that the base station provides to the WCDs operating in the coverage area.
To help remedy these and other operational impairments, a service provider may make changes to the wireless communication network, such as by adding, removing, repositioning, or reconfiguring base stations or cell sectors, or by reallocating frequencies among various coverage areas. In some instances, the service provider may monitor various properties of the wireless communication network to determine when and where to make such changes.